The reign of the Catholic Monarchs (los reyes cathólicos) – a stormy period in Spanish history corresponding to the last decades of the 15th and the first decades of the 16th century – has left a rich musical legacy. An essential part of it is the vast repertoire of Spanish secular art song written to amatory, political propaganda, philosophical or devotional texts. Most of this repertoire was written down the manuscript widely known as Cancionero Musical de Palacio (now in the Royal Library in Madrid) which ‘towers above every other secular monument of Spanish Renaissance musical history’ (Robert Stevenson).

Madly beautiful music, which – according to the contemporary witness – was once ‘all the rage’ among members of the aristocratic society of the Early Renaissance Spain.